NEW YORK — Almost a quarter century after the devastation of Sept. 11, Manhattan’s Trinity Church inaugurated its new pipe organ with a recital by Anna Lapwood, the “TikTok organist” who has quickly become a leading ambassador to the king of instruments, as the opening event in its series PIPES: A Season of Celebration.
Trinity Church was founded in 1697 and became the house of worship for the likes of George Washington and Alexander Hamilton, who is buried in the churchyard. Today it enjoys a well-funded and thriving music program. For nearly three-quarters of a century, it was home to a grand symphonic organ by the Aeolian Skinner company, an American builder favored throughout much of the 20th century by some of the grandest churches in the U.S. But in 2001, the instrument was irreparably damaged by debris from the Sept. 11 attacks, just three blocks away. After making do with a portable electric organ, the decision was made in 2015 to upgrade all three instruments. In 2017, St. Paul’s Chapel (the “Little Chapel that Stood,” a few blocks north) acquired an organ previously installed in the Boston area, and over the course of 2025 the new organ has been installed and tweaked in Trinity’s main sanctuary.
The new instrument was constructed by the German maker Glatter-Götz Orgelbau and voiced by Los Angeles-based Manuel Rosales, both famed for Walt Disney Concert Hall’s 2003 “French Fries” organ. Opus 40, as Trinity’s organ is called, utilizes original cabinetry from the 1846 building, the congregation’s third home, but all of the 8,041 pipes are new. The four-manual console, positioned at the front of the nave for the concert, controls two separate instruments: the rear gallery organ and the front chancel organ. Many of the organs commissioned in recent years for major churches in New York have been modeled after historic European organs, but this organ hews more closely to the versatile American symphonic model popular in the early 20th century and is suited for a wide range of music.
The specs for Trinity’s Opus 40 are probably lost on non-experts; suffice it to say that this organ can produce pitches at the outer ranges of human hearing, in an almost infinite combination of timbres, at volumes that range from nearly inaudible to power that makes the pews vibrate.
For the organ’s celebratory inaugural concert, Trinity turned to Lapwood, recently named the first-ever Organist at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Thanks to an easy and joyful presence on social media and her work as a broadcaster, the young artist has earned fame and followers as she introduces new listeners to an instrument often considered stuffy. In 10 years as music director at Pembroke College (Cambridge), she founded the College’s first girls choir, which has joined her on recordings and at the BBC Proms.
Her genuine enthusiasm for a range of music and her openness to serendipitous encounters during her overnight practice time at the Albert Hall have led to unusual collaborations. In 2022, British electronica star Bonobo heard her rehearse and decided to include her in his final Albert Hall concert. Between rehearsals for the Trinity recital, she even played for a runway show during Spring 2026 New York Fashion Week.
While Lapwood plays a spectrum of traditional classical organ music, her recitals usually include mostly newer music, including works by women and her own arrangements of movie scores. Responding on Instagram to a criticism of her repertoire choices: “film music is NOT crap, and has the potential to bring so many more people to our instruments….Why should we expect [people] to want to listen to us if we sneer at the music they like and aren’t happy to meet them on their own terms?…do you know how many people I’ve had turning up to my organ recitals saying they are there because they saw this video? And then they hear Bach and Debussy and Philip Glass and new music by contemporary composers…People who have never been to classical concerts before, let alone organ concerts. And they also hear film music they recognise and we all have a lovely time.”
Lapwood bounded out to the console with barely contained energy and immediately picked up the microphone. Before each grouping, she announced each piece, offering commentary on the music along with suggestions of where to applaud. Her program was chosen to showcase the impressive range of Trinity’s new instrument. There was no Bach, Duruflé, or Messaien; most of the music was written in this century, and several numbers were from her recent Sony recording, Firedove. About a third of the selections were arrangements by Lapwood of classical or film music.
Lapwood opened with a world premiere, Nimbus, by Eunike Tanzil. The Berklee- and Juilliard-trained Indonesian-born composer, who writes in both classical and commercial styles, created an energetic four-minute piece conceived, according to Tanzil, as a reflection of Lapwood’s personality. “Chaotic,” quipped the organist before launching into the sprightly three-part piece, built on a two-note theme anchored by rippling triads and a bold pedal line.
A pair of pieces by Rachel Portman and Olivia Belli on the theme of flying gave a sense of how the organ filled the room. Portman’s Flight, originally for violin and keyboard, played with the stereo effect of sound alternating between front and rear pipes. Lapwood described Belli’s Limina Luminis as capturing an astronaut’s experience of anticipation, lift-off, and buoyancy. Mid-piece, the abrupt drop-off from bone-shaking fortissimo to a single, soft note created a vivid picture of how it might feel to enter the silent weightlessness of space.
Lapwood’s transcriptions of the first two of Britten’s “Four Sea Interludes” from Peter Grimes were remarkably faithful to the colors of the original orchestra. “Sunday Morning” with its pealing bells segued smoothly into an actual peal of live bells rung from Trinity’s bell tower, introducing “The Bells of Notre Dame” from Alan Menken’s score to The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Lapwood’s arrangement showcased some of the instrument’s more colorful sonorities, ending with the delicate tinkling of tiny bells, one of the organ’s percussion effects.
The second half consisted largely of more popular 21st-century repertoire, with a single classic French selection, Eugène Gigout’s Toccata from 1880, the piece that inspired Lapwood — at 14 already an accomplished harpist — to take up the organ. A section from Star Wars was arranged as a three-way battle among right and left hands and the pedals. Italian crossover composer Ludovico Einaudi’s Experience introduced a note of early minimalism, reminiscent of George Winston, while the attractive This Shining Night by the young British composer Christopher Churcher hewed to the English-sounding, tonal-modal harmonic vocabulary that prevailed throughout the concert.
The finale and pièce de résistance was a suite of music by Hans Zimmer and Klaus Badelt from the popular Pirates of the Caribbean films. Lapwood enlisted the audience to sing a haunting sea shanty that opened the segment. By the end, listeners had revisited both the familiar (to most) tunes and the vast sonic capabilities of the instrument. Lapwood ended with a rousing tour de force as she played five different lines on three keyboards (right hand, left hand, thumbs) and different lines with right foot and left foot. The climax was satisfyingly thunderous.
An encore from How to Tame Your Dragon gave the audience a more gentle and tuneful sendoff, but no one wanted to leave after this thrilling lesson in how to tame your organ. While I would like to hear Lapwood in a program of more traditional organ repertoire, it was clear that her playing is both sensitive and powerful, and she communicates love for the music and the instrument.
PIPES continues through Nov. 9 with six more concerts on the new organ. Featured artists will include current and past Trinity organists along with Trinity’s esteemed professional vocal and instrumental ensembles. For information, go here, where you’ll also find recordings of many of the weekly free organ recitals in nearby St. Paul’s Chapel.
